Displaying and Storing Kids Art Work and School Papers

I promised this post about ideas on storing, organizing and displaying your child’s school and art work earlier this week. I have still been feeling a little under the weather, so I apologize for being late on getting this out. I had actually written this about a year ago and it’s been published in a few online magazines since then. I have made a few changes though, as far as pictures and adding a few more ideas.

First, you don’t have to keep everything. You have permission to not keep every little tiny thing your child has ever made a mark on and you won’t be considered a bad parent. There will be some things you will want to keep though. Here are some ideas on what to do with them.

Frame their little masterpieces as artwork. You can leave them up for a few months or years. Your children will be so proud to have their art displayed in their home.

My daughter painted this in 1st grade and she’s in 6th now. It’s at the top of the stairs by her bedroom:

My son did this in 5th grade and he’s graduated now. He’s the one leaving for Basic Training tomorrow:

This one is in my other daughter’s room. It’s about 2 years old.

Make their larger pieces of art into placemats. Take them to the copy store to have them laminated or purchase clear laminating or contact paper and do it yourself.

It seems like all of my kids at one time or another have made life size drawings of themselves. What do you do with all those huge pieces of artwork that won’t fit in a binder? Take a picture of your child with the art and put it in their album. Now you have a memory of it forever and you can toss the actual art.

Think of creative ways to display your kids artwork or school papers around your home. Make a little clothesline and hang them from clothespins, hang them from clipboards or display a few pieces of their art on a cork board and rotate them weekly. You can toss the old ones or keep a few special ones for a binder.

Mail or take some artwork to grandparents. Speaking from a grandmother’s point of view, they love it. Make sure your child’s name is on it and the date.

Take some of their extra nice pieces or ones that would coordinate with a specific month and have them made into a calendar. How fun would that be to have around the house or to give to the grandparents?

Have a basket for school papers you won’t be saving. You can use them for scratch paper or lists and your preschooler can use them to draw on.

Temporarily store school papers and art in plastic stacking drawers and then go through them at the end of the term. Have a separate drawer for each child. Only keep the ones you and your child really love.

Once you have decided on the papers you are going to keep for a school year, put them in protective sheets and put them in a binder or have them spiral bound at a copy center. This makes it easy for you and your child to look through them.

Let your child pick some art to put up in their rooms. Change it out with the seasons or when they get tired of it.

What if your child has bigger items, like pottery or wood working projects? Display these throughout your home or in one location and rotate them often.

Be sure to keep papers from the first of the year and the end of the year so you can compare writing, drawing, spelling and math skills. Keep special awards, notes from the teacher and other special reminders from that year also.

Enjoy your kid’s work, but don’t feel like you have to keep everything. None of us have a house that big.

This is my first time participating in Met Monday at Between Naps on the Porch. I love this site! Check out other great metamorphosis projects at Between Naps on the Porch and get some awesome ideas you might be able to borrow.

Great ideas! Where were you when my kids were little!? LOL I actually did use several of your ideas, Wish I had thought of the binder idea……I guess there is still itme..all the boxes are in the attic! On second thought…4 kids & upteen boxes….maybe they can do it when they get their own places! LOL
*hugs*deb

Great ideas! Also one other idea I used to use for those large pieces of butcher paper with art on it is to use it to wrap presents to relatives. They love it and the kids are excited to show off their artwork on a gift.